LinkedIn Agrees to Settle Gender Pay Discrimination Complaint for $1.8 Million in Back Wages

LinkedIn’s settlement affects nearly 700 women workers in who worked at different departments at the company's offices in San Francisco and Sunnyvale between 2015 and 2017.

By Associated Press | Updated: 4 May 2022 12:28 IST

LinkedIn said the company pays, has paid its employees fairly and equitably when comparing similar work

Highlights

Questions have centred on alleged harassment and discrimination
Google said it is focused on "building sustainable equity"
LinkedIn argued its statistical models didn't identify pay disparities

The career-networking service LinkedIn has agreed to pay $1.8 million (roughly Rs. 13 crore) in back wages to hundreds of female workers to settle a pay discrimination complaint brought by US labour investigators.

The US Labor Department announced Tuesday that it has reached a settlement agreement with LinkedIn to resolve allegations of “systemic, gender-based pay discrimination" in which women were paid less than men in comparable job roles.

The settlement affects nearly 700 women who worked in engineering, product or marketing roles from 2015 to 2017 at the company's offices in San Francisco and Sunnyvale, California. It includes the time before and after Microsoft's $26.2 billion (roughly Rs. 2,00,380 crore) acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016.

AI Is Explaining Itself to Humans. and It's Paying Off

LinkedIn said in a statement that “while we have agreed to settle this matter, we do not agree with the government's claims; LinkedIn pays and has paid its employees fairly and equitably when comparing similar work.”

The settlement agreement says LinkedIn argued that its statistical models didn't identify pay disparities. The government said its own analysis found significant pay disparities even after controlling for “legitimate explanatory factors.”

The agency said the case was sparked by a routine evaluation by its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Federal laws ban discriminatory practices at companies that contract with the federal government.

Microsoft Closes on $16-Billion Acquisition of Nuance

Last year, Google faced a similar complaint against pay disparity when California's civil rights regulator was investigating company's treatment of Black female workers following alleged incidents of harassment and discrimination, according to two people familiar with the matter and emails from the agency seen by Reuters.

Attorneys and analysts at the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) had repeatedly interviewed several Black women who have worked at the Alphabet-owned company about their experiences there, according to the documents and the sources.

Questions have centred on alleged harassment and discrimination in the workplace, according to the emails. The DFEH declined to comment.

Google said it is focused on "building sustainable equity" for its Black workers and that 2020 was its largest year for hiring what it calls "Black+" workers, a designation inclusive of people belonging to multiple races.

"Our goal is to ensure that every employee experiences Google as an inclusive workplace," it said. "We'll continue to focus on this important work and thoroughly investigate any concerns, to make sure our workplace is representative and equitable."

Xiaomi 12 Pro is littered with features, but is that enough? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.